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LONG POND, Pa. – A battle between teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott opened the door for Kurt Busch, who grabbed the lead and eventually the win here in Monday’s rain-delayed Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Meanwhile, the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers were left to consider what could have been.
“I just didn’t do what I needed to do,” Earnhardt said of a Lap 128 restart, the 10th in the 160-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. “The 41 (of Busch) got a run on us and he shouldn’t have. I should have done a better job there. I think if I could have gotten in front of him, I could have held that position.”
Earnhardt and Elliott started 1-2 as the race went green for the final time. As the two Chevrolets battled side-by-side for the lead, it slowed the progress of both enough to allow Busch to come steaming past and into the lead.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver led the final 32 laps on the 2.5-mile track, managing fuel mileage and keeping Earnhardt Jr. at bay.
“It slowed both of us up,” Earnhardt, twice a winner here, said of the battle with Elliott. “The 41 just had a great opportunity sitting back there behind us.
“I couldn’t tell where the 24 (of Elliott) was … we were in line going down the straightaway and he dove in the corner underneath me. I didn’t know he was going to get there; it kind of slowed us both up pretty bad in the middle of the corner and the 41 got a great run and we couldn’t defend that.”
There was disappointment, but no ill will. Elliott was “just trying to get around us and he was trying to get the lead, too,” Earnhardt said. “Good hard racing. I should have done a better job.”
It was the fourth runner-up finish this season for Earnhardt, who led briefly (from laps 124-126 again on lap 128) before Busch made what proved to be the winning pass.
Elliott, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, continues to draw praise for how quickly he has adapted to the faster, more competitive series. For the first time in his short career (Monday’s race was his 19th), he led the most laps (51).
But he realized the impact of his late-race battle with his teammate.
“Obviously I made a big mistake there behind Dale in the tunnel after that restart,” he said. “I wish I had been a little more patient and given ourselves a better chance, but you live and you learn.”
Instead of racing a teammate for the lead, and perhaps the win, Elliott finished fourth.
Greg Ives, crew chief for Earnhardt, agreed with his driver that track position was key.
“You saw all day the guys that got out front were able to get a good jump out there to the lead,” he said. “It was good to see that we were able to stay within a half-second of the leader there for awhile.”
While the No. 88 entry wasn’t perfect, it was strong enough to contend for the win.
“Track position really helped us but we did have to work on it a little bit just trying to free up the car,” Ives said. “Usually we are a little closer than that, but that’s alright. We were able to work on it, everybody stayed with it and we were able to get a good finish.”
Officials had been forced to reschedule the race from Sunday to Monday due to rain.